The Clifton clarion., 1887-10-26

Sdi CAttuohto Ol hC6VNAb4C hutAA ton to yield abundant and profit able crops without the aid of arti- ficial fertilization save the applica- ton of water; 1t needs only to tickle it with a hoe and it will laugh with harvest. Nowhere on this continent can there be found richer lands, with greater producing capacity, than in the valleys of the Colorado, Salt, Gila, San Pedro, Santa Cruz and Verde rivers. To reclaim these now desert lands, and make them yield abundantly in profitable crops, there is needed an elaborate and perfect system of irrigation; al ready there have been constructed in Arizona some 400 miles of irri- gating canals at total cost of over Sl,000,000, which should re- claim about 215,000 acres of land, yet we have scarcely commenced. We greatly need and richly de- serve federal aid by an appropria- ton for a Photographic survey with a view to obtaining water by storage reservoirs in the noun tain sheds and test the utility of artesian wells for the same pur- pose in the valleys. The govern ment cas put to no better use part of the unwarranted and surplus revenues which, by an oppressive war tariff, have been taken from the people and hoarded in the United States treasury vaults than expend it in the reclamation of desert lands, thus aiding agricul tural interests.
 As your executive I have urged in my annual report, and am not without hope that Congress will look favorably upon this reason able request.
 Nature has not confined Ari- zona to the sole resources of agri- culture; with prodigal hand she has scanned her mountains with precious minerals of every kind known to science. From the northern line at Utah to the south ern extreme at Sonora, gold, sil- yer and copper are found hidden in every mountain side; millions of dollars of precious metals are annually produced as Arizona's output and contribution of metali- ferrous wealth. Mining camps are dotted all over the Territory and the music of hammer and drill keep time with the steady step of the prospector as he unearths the hidden treasures. This great and fourishing industry is still in its infancy, we are practically only prospecting at the ''grass roots" while our great ore bodies are yet undisturbed. Like agriculture it has experienced drawbacks; with out facilities for transportation, far removed from the smelters of California and Colorado, and with exhorbitant freights, high grade ores have only been worked. Now that the freight car is at our door, sampling works erected in our midst, freights reduced to a far standpoint, a new impetus has been given to mining and the an nual yield will steadily increase and Arizona take the lead as one of the greatest producers of bull lion of any of the States or Terri tories.
 Another great and leading in dustry and source of wealth in Arizona is her stock growing. With pastoral lands equal in area to all If New England; hundreds of thousands of cattle roam over the grassy plains, valleys, and hill sides fattening and increasing, free from epidemic diseases and loss from severe climatic changes, while the Texas stockmen have their herds decimated by drouth, and the cattle of Montana and Wyoming have perished by the thousands from cold and hunger, OUT nerds have improved, and the loss from these causes have been merely nominal. With abundance of nutritious grasses and our equable climate, stock roam the ranges the entire year with per feet security, needing no addition al food With sound sanitary laws and an able and honest Board of Live Stock Sanitary Commis-